Sowing Gospel Seed

The Russia Sports Team is doing well. We think we may actually be over our jet lag. It’s amazing how much a 10-hour time change can affect you. The Russian Boot Camp (RBC) was already in progress when we arrived in Krasnya Niva on Thursday, so we had to get busy working right away. Our teens began teaching classes for the RBC—Holly,Katie and Josh are teaching music; Canaan and Rachel are teaching puppets; and Matt and Carly are teaching drama. They are also judging different parts of the Obstacle Course and have various jobs to do in the evening rallies.

Yesterday (Sat.) we were invited by the Mayor of Krasnya Niva to participate in a local festival. Some of the Russian teens from the Boot Camp mixed with our teens to play in a soccer game. During half-time we were able to share God’s Word through music, puppets and drama. Please pray with us for the many seeds that were planted, that each individual might find a closer walk with the Lord.

We have been eating Russian food and are adjusting to eating different hot cereals, bread and tea for breakfast; soup, bread and tea for lunch, and various other foods such as a variety of salads, noodles, and potatoes with bread and tea for dinner. Tonight we had a real treat: mashed potatoes, a type of hot dog, and bread with delicious berry jam. This meal was a little closer to a meal we might have at home and you could tell because we ate every last bite.

Along with helping run the Russian Boot Camp, we are busy doing our own classes: God’s Gentlemen (for boys) & Grubby to Grace (for girls); Library Reading Time; Bible Marking; and Quizzing to name a few.

The weather has been quite nice: around mid 80’s during the day with a slight breeze and in the upper 60’s / lower 70’s at night. A big change from the weather at Boot Camp in Florida, so that is a big blessing.

From Josh: Yesterday we did our first outreach at a soccer field. We played soccer one half and then did a few songs and then we finished the game. The look on the kids faces said it all when the Russian campers (national team members) where singing they were smiling and clapping a few were singing along. We had a few problems with the sound system we brought because it failed midway through our skit but we restarted and finished strong. The skit we performed was called Cage, during the skit we pretend to be in a cage that we cannot escape. Then my team member Matt comes out of the cage and finds a Bible. He reads the bible and he is set free. Then he brings the Bible over to me and the rest of the team and we all read it and get a pretend key and get out of the cage. We all turn towards the audience and hold the Bible out toward them and the play ends. People were lining up on the road to watch us and hopefully we planted some seeds that will grow strong.